Staff Changes and Additions 

Dean Cooper, who had shepherded the West Kentucky Sub-experiment Station since its inception, retired in 1951. Frank Welch took over as dean of the UK College of Agriculture and director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station. During the same year, two new positions were added to the West Kentucky substation. With the arrival of the two new scientists, Leo Link (an agronomist) and Ralph Overfield (an animal scientist), new research programs developed rapidly. In 1951, research programs for swine and sheep were established.   

Tobacco, Crop and Horticulture Research

A U.S. Department of Agriculture plant pathologist, Jerry Scoog, was headquartered at the Princeton facility to develop a dark tobacco variety with resistance to tobacco mosaic virus. When Scoog transferred to the USDA’s Beltsville, Maryland laboratory in 1955, he was replaced by Chris Litton. With the transfer of Litton to Lexington, the Princeton station again became primarily a testing station with most of the tobacco breeding work done in Lexington under the direction of breeders, including Litton, G.W. Stokes, G.B. Collins, and Paul D. Legg. The research at Princeton and in Lexington resulted in the release of Ky 160, a type 35 one-sucker cultivar with resistance to tobacco mosaic virus. Ky 160 remains the standard of quality for dark air-cured tobacco.

In September 1956, George Everette, an agronomist, was added to the faculty as an Extension tobacco specialist, working with dark tobacco producers in the area. Most of his work involved providing farmers with Extension educational programs. Everette remained at the station through the next 30 years, working tirelessly not only as a tobacco specialist but also as an advocate for the University and the station.

Variety testing, which had been part of the station's work since its inception, expanded under Link to include the testing of winter barley and winter oats in 1954. Soybean grain variety testing began in 1958; early work at the station had evaluated soybeans as a hay crop. Link’s agronomic research also involved top-dressing with trace elements to enhance alfalfa yields, as well as studying the effect of nitrogen placement on corn and wheat. An agronomic study on corn hybrids, planting dates, and planting rates began in 1957 and continued through 1961. This study provided corn producers with more precise knowledge on production practices to increase yields.   

Armstrong, who was hired in 1938, focused his 1950s horticulture research on variety trials for strawberries, grapes, peaches, apples, and sweet potatoes, as well as research on strawberry rot, using fungicides.

Livestock Research

As an example of the research during the 1950s, three types of cows were compared in an experiment proving “the need for an adequate and persistent supply of milk for the production of milk-fat calves by the Kentucky Cow and Calf Plan,” an initiative begun during the war to improve the quality of Kentucky’s calves for slaughter. Essentially, the plan involved crossbreeding dairy stock with an improved beef bull to produce a heavy, milk-fed calf that would grade as Choice at slaughter. The plan was widely adopted throughout western Kentucky. Overfield’s research in those years also involved the evaluation of crossbreeding programs in sheep, winter pasturing swine on rye and fescue, and using antibiotic supplements for growing/fattening pigs grazing on alfalfa pastures.   

As the 1950s drew to a close, the research conducted at Princeton was becoming increasingly sophisticated. Beef research investigated the effects of diethylstibestrol implants on growth rates and swine research investigated feeding protein supplements to growing and finishing pigs raised in confinement.

Leadership Change and Growth 

S.J. Lowry, superintendent of the farm since 1925, retired in 1963. His successor, Paul Appel, served as superintendent for 10 years. As agricultural research progressed in both breadth and depth, it became evident that more land was necessary. In 1963, an additional 83 acres of land were purchased, bringing the farm’s total acreage to 616 acres. Another 399 acres were added in 1964, bringing the total farm area to 1,015 acres.  

The Princeton Bull Sale 

The first performance-tested bull sale for beef breeds ever held in Kentucky occurred at the station in 1962. From that point through the early 1980s, the station hosted the “Princeton Bull Sale.” Each annual sale was a special day, as breeders, potential bull buyers, and agricultural decision-makers chose this event as a gathering point. Capacity crowds often filled the sales pavilion, which the farm crew became proficient at erecting each year.

Swine & Poultry Research 

In 1962, a specific pathogen-free herd of Yorkshire hogs was established on the farm to replace the Duroc herd, which had been infected with incurable respiratory diseases. Forty-one pigs were brought from an SPF laboratory to reestablish the herd. Research conducted with this herd was both prolific and remarkable.

With the advent of integrated broiler production and large-scale egg production, poultry research at the farm ceased in 1964. (Research in poultry production continued at the Lexington campus.)

Field Crop and No-Till Research

Charles Tutt, an agronomist, was added to the staff in 1965 to work with grain crop trials and variety development. Variety trials, most of which had commenced in the 1920s, continued as new varieties of grain crops with resistance to various diseases were introduced.  

It was also in 1965 that the first research on minimum tillage for corn production was conducted at the station. This research demonstrated the feasibility of using an herbicide to control sod and then planting corn into the dead sod. Minimum tillage and no-tillage, developed primarily by scientists at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, notably Shirley Phillips, and through research conducted at the Princeton substation, have arguably had the most significant impact on world agriculture in the 20th century. Subsequent research conducted by University of Kentucky scientists, as well as by scientists worldwide, has demonstrated not only its feasibility but also its advantages in terms of yields and protection of soil and water resources.